Virginia – Under constant pressure, hotel operators can benefit from a professional contractor’s advice
When you’re traveling and check into a hotel, you do so with certain expectations. You expect the room will be clean, reasonably quiet, and — most of all — comfortable. That means a properly functioning HVAC system.
Now, multiply those expectations by the millions of travelers staying in hotel rooms across the country each day, and you can see why the hospitality industry faces some unique challenges. Add in social media, and those “challenges” might be better referred to as “perils.”
PEOPLE WILL TALK
Hotels differ from other commercial clients in that they live under constant pressure from social media, noted Jaimi Lomas, vice president of service and general manager of San Diego-based A.O. Reed & Co. If guests aren’t comfortable or have a bad experience with a hotel’s HVAC system, they can immediately post a bad review on social media sites such as Yelp or TripAdvisor.
“More so than other commercial building owners and operators, hotel administrators are under tremendous pressure from end users,” Lomas said.
That pressure, in turn, falls on the shoulders of an on-site maintenance staff that may or may not be able to handle every issue that arises.
“It’s difficult even for professional companies in the HVAC industry to find top technicians, so imagine how hard it must be for hotels,” Lomas said. “By the time they call our team for service, it’s generally a red-hot emergency.”
Martin Naranjo, A.O. Reed’s operations manager, said communication can be the key to working effectively with hotel clients.
“Hotels can now use inexpensive Web-based technology to track temperature, occupancy, open windows, and more from a tablet,” he noted. “If management chooses to do so, they can save an enormous amount of energy and money by monitoring rooms remotely.”
Naranjo added that, although building automation systems can be a great energy saver for hotels, they can end up falling short of their potential if they’re not properly maintained.
“Ironically, automation systems can be one of the biggest causes of excess energy consumption,” Naranjo said. “In many cases, sensors aren’t being calibrated because the hotel’s management doesn’t want to pay someone to do it, and professional contractors aren’t being brought in to conduct periodic inspections of the system to ensure it’s functioning properly.
“Some hotels do have us out periodically, and when we’re there, we focus on training their staff on how to properly maintain their controls systems,” he added. “In those cases, we do a lot of hand-holding to make sure that once an energy-management system is in place, it’s used to its full potential.”
That brings it back to communication, but Lomas noted that communication is changing in ways that can make building relationships with hospitality clients difficult.
“Communication is very different than it used to be,” Lomas said. “No one seems to have time anymore. Remember when people used to talk on the phone or in person? Now, it’s all emails and texts, and some of the relationship is lost. The success we’ve had in the hospitality business is based on communication, but you have to be committed to achieving it.”
SIDEBAR: EASY TUNEUP OPPORTUNITIES
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), through its Energy Star program, offers some easy tuneup measures that can reduce energy use in various areas of hotels:
• Peripheral and back rooms — Make sure HVAC settings in lobbies, offices, and other such peripheral rooms are at minimum settings during hours of low use.
• Laundry — Set laundry hot water to 120°F. This is a good temperature for all hot water uses outside of the kitchen, where codes are specific about water temperature.
• Pools and hot tubs — Make sure all pools and hot tubs are covered after hours to diminish heat loss.
• Housekeeping procedures — Encourage housekeepers to turn off all lights and set temperatures to minimum levels after cleaning each room. Closing drapes when a room is unoccupied will reduce heat gain in the summer and heat loss in the winter.
• Front desk — Teach registration staff that they can help save energy costs by booking rooms in clusters so that only occupied building areas or wings need to be heated or cooled to guest comfort levels. Rooms on top floors, at building corners, and facing west (in summer) or north (in winter) can be the most energy-intensive to heat or cool; therefore, consider renting them last.
Hotel operators and contractors can use Energy Star’s Hospitality Benchmarking Starter Kit to assess their properties’ energy performance with Energy Star’s Portfolio Manager. This starter kit is intended to help users get started benchmarking, take the next steps, and assist in data collection.
Hotels can benefit from the services provided by CMR of Virginia to ensure their guest are comfortable.
